The Mea Culpa Reviews of October

Again- sorry for missing the other night. It was a bummer for moi.

Music Club

Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson- Break Up

After our last venture into (I wish) Scarlett I was prepared to give this one a good shellacking. Shockingly I am unable to do so. Most of this isn’t half bad. The songs are well constructed 60s pop. The duets work best because Scarlett’s voice can be Liz Phair whiny but not in a good Liz Phair whiny way and she can bring a song down, like “Wear and Tear”. Yorn deserves a long distance high five for making Scarlett, occasionally, sound as hot as her most famous assets. (3)

The Who- Who By Numbers

An easily overlooked “loose” Who documentary. Definitely not “Who’s Next” but what is. Pete treads very close to that recording and “Quadraphenia” except he is a little more introspective about getting on in years and his self destructive lifestyle (heck he was 30 years old for god’s sake!). Besides the first 3 great songs the rest is semi-forgettable but far from horrid and was still a welcome listen though “Who’s Next” will still be the one I pull out the most. (3)

Sugar-Copper Blue

Okay stone me now- I was never a big Husker Du fan. While Mould steals some that muddied HDu sound, he did so by wrapping it around some the best metal melodies ever written. I use the term metal loosely because pieces of the songs have the traditional metal chunk-chunk-chunk beat and metal story lines about drowning he blend that with pop melodies. And if that’s not enough he throws in “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” which is pure pop. Brilliant. (4.5)

Cocktail Slippers- St. Valentines Day Massacre

Stumbled upon this one (one of two 2009 releases) and it just stuck with me. Personally, what’s not to love; Norwegian female pop punk band with 60s pop sensibilities. Priceless. Sure the songs are simple and they sing about nothing deeper than teenage crushes and disappointment but the songs just stick with you. (3.5)

Black Crowes- Before the Frost

Sorry Sandy but these guys just bore me. CRobinson thinks he has more soul that he does and the rock jam band thing is tiresome, though I think brother Rich is a pretty good guitarist. I will say that they do have their moments, like a couple of minutes in the middle of "Been a Long Time (Waiting on Love)" was purty good. And that song “Remedy”- oh wait that was a few years ago… (1)

Dada Ghits

There’s a good and bad here. The good- every song is a keeper with the “Puzzle” tunes still their best. The bad- I’ll never pull out a Dada disc again. Just have to pull out this GHits. Well done.

Topic

First a hearty fuck you to D’Arcy for his Kath bashing jab at moi. Now to the topic.

1) You have the chance to see one living band that you haven't yet seen. Who is the band, (remember living, but reunions count), how far are you willing to travel, and how much will you pay?

I assume they all had to be alive - Rage Against the Machine reunion. I’d go within a 3 hour radius and pay up to $100 bucks.

2) Who is the one artist(s) that you always wanted to see but for whatever reason something always gets in the way? Do you still want to see them?

Lou Reed- first he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and canceled on me then I had tickets and we got hammered with a snow storm. Missed him twice by that much. I think I would like to still see him but not sure if he could still pull it off.

3) What about concerts that you have recently been to have changed? Is it for the better or for worse? What is it that you miss the most about concerts?

Shows with a younger audience, the music is second to the “show”. They want spectacle instead of a cover or that obscure song (Green Day is a good example of this). This is not good. With older audiences, depending on act, its all about nostalgia and again the music takes a back seat. They want the hits not the new material and basically if they can sing along it doesn’t matter how good the artist(s) performs. I miss the raw energy shows used to have (I’m not saying every show is lame). Used to go to a show and walk out sweaty, sore neck, deaf and exhausted. Now I’m only exhausted due to age.

4) Which is the better piece of music, the one that is in your must play list, or the one you know is a great cd, has great reviews, but rarely gets played by you? Why? And does this effect how you review cd's?

Nice question. I believe I can separate what is great from what is great to me. Ex: Pearl Jam’s “Ten” is a great 5 star album I don’t listen to that much but “Vs” is a great to me album I will listen to all the time. There are quite a few great recordings that I don’t listen to all that often (“Sgt Pepper”) and other that are border line awful that I will pull out again and again (“Captured” by Journey). In a review I would obviously rate SP higher than Captured but per listens the other wins- you may start abusing me……..now.

I admit I will try harder on the rave reviewed albums to see what I am missing but I am now of a certain age that if I don’t like it I won’t listen to it. In the beginning of DYN I used to get tarred and feathered for reviews that weren’t from my heart but instead subjective within genre so I know I can separate the two but of late I do review more from the gut.